Analysis: Russians feel little economic pain now, long-term outlook darkens

Mon, May 30, 2022, 

By Jake Cordell

LONDON (Reuters) - For Oleg Kechin, owner of a chain of barbershops, forecasts that Russia will be plunged into its deepest economic crisis in a generation feel overdone.

U.S. President Joe Biden may have promised that Western sanctions would wreak economic havoc in Russia, but Kechin's business is still drawing in customers in the town of Saransk, which lies 510 km (320 miles) southeast of Moscow.

"There's no deep crisis. In general, everything's fine," he said. "Everyone's talking about a decrease in purchasing power, but I haven't noticed it."

Yet, such confidence may not be entirely well placed, if some indicators are to be believed. Trade with the outside world has plunged, consumers are reluctant to spend and rising prices on basic items are starting to squeeze household budgets.

Russian officials insist the economy is holding up. The central bank slashed interest rates by three percentage points to 11% on Thursday and expects to cut its forecast for inflation for this year from the current prediction of 18-23%.

Under capital controls and orders that exporters sell half their hard currency earnings, the rouble has rallied and, at about 66 to the U.S. dollar, is stronger than before Russia sent its armed forces into Ukraine on Feb. 24. [RU/RUB]

President Vladimir Putin, who has welcomed the departure of foreign firms which have sold up or just dumped Russian assets, said Russia could not be isolated from global trade.

But not everyone is convinced the economy will escape unscathed. Roman, a 25-year-old in Moscow, who asked not to be identified by his full name, said middle class life was not "drastically different" than before but he saw worrying signs.

"One thing that bothers me ... is constant price rises for everyday goods and even vegetables. I think that signals the worst is yet to come." he said. "The situation with the labour market in my sphere doesn't make me very optimistic either."

'DEMAND CRISIS'

Some indicators justify his concerns. VAT receipts, which reflect consumer spending, fell 54% in April year on year, the Kommersant daily said, citing preliminary finance ministry data.

Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov said on Friday there was a "demand crisis" in business and consumer spending.

Russia has stopped publishing most data on financial flows, but figures compiled by the Bank of Finland based on local customs data show imports have plunged - and not just from the West.

Chinese exports to Russia were down by a quarter in April and shipments from Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan more than halved, the bank said.

The economy minister said manufacturers were re-establishing supply chains broken by sanctions and said 2,000 "backbone companies" could access preferential lending programmes.

But inflation is still at its highest in two decades at more than 17%. That means a 10% hike in pensions and the minimum wage announced by Putin still leaves many facing a cut in household incomes in real terms.

Rising prices may not be Russia's biggest problem. The strong rouble has already brought down weekly inflation sharply, but it won't fend off a broader threat to economic output from Russia's increasing isolation.

Reshetnikov said there were "fears that we could break into a deflationary spiral, when a reduction in money in the economy leads to a reduction in production, lower prices, and so on."

Meanwhile, financing a military campaign in Ukraine will put pressure on the budget. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday that Moscow required "huge financial resources" for what Moscow calls its "special military operation".

STIMULUS

Russia has already dipped into its National Wealth Fund, which has about $110 billion of liquid assets, to support spending, which is up 22% this year, the economy minister said.

The finance minister said Moscow had earmarked 8 trillion roubles ($123 billion) of stimulus for "the current circumstances", although it was not clear how much of that was new money and over what period.

The full impact on economic output and jobs from the withdrawal of Western firms, ranging from carmakers to banks, has yet to seen.

Sergei Guriev, economics professor at France's Sciences Po, expected the impact to be felt more sharply in the next few months.

"The real pain has not started yet as some exiting companies are still paying wages and some companies continue production using their inventories of imported parts," said Guriev, who is also a former chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Morgan Stanley economists see a 13% drop in household consumption in 2022 and a 23% fall in investment. The bank's chief regional economist, Alina Slyusarchuk, said in a note that Russia's potential long-term growth rate was now just 1%.

The outlook appears to be dimming for smaller Russian firms, although there is little way to gauge it precisely with so little official data now being published and businesses no longer required to report results.

"Very few companies want to create a strategy or plan long-term, large-scale contracts right now," said Anastasia Kiseleva, a partner at a small public relations firm in Moscow.

"Businesses - especially small ones - will be engaged in pure survival, not developing or creating anything new."

Survival-mode, however, is nothing new to many Russians, who have lived through several deep crises since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

"The worst is ahead of us," said Yevgeniy Sheremetov, who runs a tour company near Lake Baikal in Siberia. "But residents of this country are used to difficulties. I have my summer house, with potatoes and cucumbers. After the 1990s, nothing can scare me."

(Additional reporting by Marc Jones in London; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Edmund Blair)

Ukraine's 'unicorn' LGBTQ soldiers head for war





Couple leave for the frontline to serve the Territorial Defence army, in Kyiv

Tue, May 31, 2022,
By Horaci Garcia

KYIV (Reuters) - As volunteer fighters Oleksandr Zhuhan and Antonina Romanova pack for a return to active duty, they contemplate the unicorn insignia that gives their uniform a rare distinction - a symbol of their status as an LGBTQ couple who are Ukrainian soldiers.

Members of Ukraine's LGBTQ community who sign up for the war have taken to sewing the image of the mythical beast into their standard-issue epaulettes just below the national flag.

The practice harks back to the 2014 conflict when Russia invaded then annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine, "when lots of people said there are no gay people in the army," actor, director and drama teacher Zhuhan told Reuters as he and Romanova dressed in their apartment for their second three-month combat rotation.

"So they (the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community) chose the unicorn because it is like a fantastic 'non-existent' creature."

Zhuhan and Romanova, who identifies as a non-binary person with she/her pronouns and moved to the capital from Crimea after being displaced in 2014, met through their theatre work.

Neither was trained in the use of weapons but, after spending a couple of days hiding in their bathroom at the start of the war, decided they had to do more.

"I just remember that at a certain point it became obvious that we only had three options: either hide in a bomb shelter, run away and escape, or join the Territorial Defence (volunteers). We chose the third option," Romanova said.

Russia says its forces are on a "special operation" to demilitarise Ukraine and rid it of radical anti-Russian nationalists. Ukraine and its allies call that a false pretext for a war of aggression.

For Zhuhan and Romanova, their vocation gives them an added sense of responsibility.

"Because what Russia does is they don't just take our territories and kill our people. They want to destroy our culture and... we can't allow this to happen," Zhuhan said.

'NO BULLYING'

Their first tour of duty around Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, about 135 km (80 miles) from the port of Odesa, changed their lives. They fought in the same unit and found it terrifying, Zhuhan contracted pneumonia, but, the couple says, their fellow fighters accepted them.

"There was no aggression, no bullying... It was a little unusual for the others. But, over time, people started calling me Antonina, some even used my she pronoun," Romanova said.

There was much back-slapping as they joined their new unit at Kyiv's central station for a second three-month stint. Some of the team Zhuhan and Romanova knew but the commanders were not at the station.

"I'm a little worried about that," he said, the mood becoming more sombre as the unit headed towards their train as dusk fell. "I know that in some units, the rules are more strict... It wasn't like that in our (first) unit."

Zhuhan's unease lifts as one commander makes clear his refusal to tolerate homophobia, and a more senior officer says the only important thing on the front line is to be a good fighter, he subsequently tells Reuters by phone.

But one overriding fear, voiced back in their apartment, remains.

"The thing I'm worried about is that in case I get killed during this war, they won't allow Antonina to bury me the way I want to be buried," Zhuhan said.

"They'd rather let my mum bury me with the priest reading silly prayers... But I am an atheist and I don't want that."

(Reporting by Horaci Garcia; Writing by Eleanor Biles and John Stonestreet; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

LET THERE BE CONSPIRACY THEORIES

This American Married Into Royalty—Now She’s Dead

Barbie Latza Nadeau
Tue, May 31, 2022,

Instagram

An American-born princess whose fairy tale life turned into a modern horror story has died in her home in Spain.

Kasia Gallanio, 45, was born to Polish parents in Los Angeles, but spent the last years of her troubled life fighting for custody of the three daughters she had with the Prince of Qatar, Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al-Thani, who is 30 years her senior and the uncle of the emir of Qatar.

Al-Thani moved to Paris in 1992 after he was cast out of the royal family for allegedly trying to overthrown the emir. He met Gallanio, who would ultimately become his third wife, there and convinced her to convert to Islam. Gallanio was involved in a $65 million lawsuit after discovering that someone had fraudulently been siphoning funds out of Al-Thani’s Barclay’s bank account, which made headlines across France in the late 1990s.

Gallanio left her husband over allegations that her husband sexually abused one of her three daughters when she was between 9 and 15 years old, and the two had been in a bitter custody battle that exposed plenty of family secrets of the Qatar royal family, with allegations that ran the gamut from infidelity to corruption.

Al-Thani denies all allegations and maintained custody off all three girls at his home in Paris while Gallanio lived in a palace in Marbella, Spain, where French media reported she was battling depression and addictions to drugs and alcohol.

Galliano had fled with her daughters from that palatial Parisian flat, but Al-Thani had recently regained custody of the girls, and they had moved back with him to Paris, according to French and Spanish media reports. If they attempted to visit their mother, the prince reportedly made them sleep in the servants quarters until they repented, according to French media reports.

A full autopsy is being carried out on Tuesday, but first responders said that they suspect her death was a drug overdose. Police went to the Costa del Sol beach home after she had not responded to her children’s telephone calls for several days. They have now opened an investigation into any circumstances around her death, including whether it was inspired by the bitter custody battle.

Rediscovered footage of Empress Teimei, Crown Prince Hirohito give rare glimpse into 1920s Japan



Jane Nam
Tue, May 31, 2022, 6:52 PM·1 min read

Century-old footage of Empress Teimei and Crown Prince Hirohito was recently discovered at a university in Ise, giving modern viewers an ultra-rare glimpse into an early 20th century Japan.

The eight-minute, black and white, silent clip was found at Kogakkan University of Japan, and dates back approximately 100 years to the Taisho era (1912-1926).

The first half of the video shows Empress Teimei visiting Jingu Kogakkan University and later the Ise Jingu shrine on November 5, 1922. The second half is of a then-24-year-old crown prince visiting the mausoleum on February 27, 1924.

The footage shows a modernized Japan with horse-drawn carriages and men and women in Western-inspired attire. The men sporting formal suits and top hats and the women in floor-length dresses with plume-adorned hats stand in stark contrast to the traditional buildings of the time period.

Soldiers are also shown marching in the rigidly postured style of British soldiers, moving forward with even steps in a straight file line.

Jingushicho, which manages the Ise Jingu shrine, commented, “We’re surprised to hear that footage from the Taisho era remains. We imagine that the sight of Empress Teimei at Ise Jingu shrine must be very valuable."

Honesty about hate: America must be truthful about the sources of Anti-Asian violence


Gardiner Anderson/New York Daily News/TNS

Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News
Tue, May 31, 2022

Today, the final day of Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, President Biden is set to address the sharp rise in anti-Asian-American hate crimes and discuss the importance of inclusion and fair representation. But the event will likely be incomplete, filled with vague entreaties for everyone to get along and perhaps a few suggestions that the last president is singularly responsible for opening a Pandora’s Box of bias-related violence.

While Donald Trump did indeed give implicit permission for racists to come out of their hidey-holes, including by gleefully labeling COVID the “Chinese virus,” we in New York City, where anti-Asian-American violence has grown more than anywhere, are fighting off a virus of hate that is more complex than that.

There is no indication that the perpetrators of anti-Asian-American violence here have commonality or affinity with the red-hatted MAGA hordes. That doesn’t accurately describe the man who pushed Michelle Go to her death, or the man who stabbed Christina Lee more than 40 times, or the man who chased down an Asian woman and pushing her to the ground late last month, or the man who struck a woman more than 40 times in a Yonkers vestibule while calling her an “Asian b---h,” or the man who attacked a man with a hammer on a Manhattan subway platform. Nor does it describe the man arrested for a two-hour spree of attacks on seven Asian women in late February.

Those first five incidents happened to be allegedly committed by mentally unstable men or otherwise hardened criminals who are Black, the last by a mentally unstable white man. None had known histories of political advocacy.

That’s an admittedly partial picture of the facts in America’s largest city, where anti-Asian hate and other forms of street violence rearing their heads appear to be deeply intertwined, and where untreated psychosis is a big part of the problem.

It does no one any good to pretend that some politically convenient disembodied force of hate is hurting people. Accurately describe the problem or it can never be set right.

Asian Americans are typecast as successful students, but new report finds troubling gaps


Teresa Watanabe
Tue, May 31, 2022

People on campus at UCLA. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Asian Americans are often seen as successful students, but the stereotype masks "incredibly disconcerting" gaps in college outcomes among the multiple ethnic groups who make up the larger community in California, according to a new report released Tuesday.

Among the first-year, full-time students who entered the University of California in 2013, six-year graduation rates vary from about 90% for those of Chinese, Vietnamese and Indian descent to about 70% for Samoans and Hmong undergraduates, according to the report by the Campaign for College Opportunity. At California State University, about 85% of transfer students of Japanese and Filipino ancestry graduate in four to six years compared with less than 70% for Native Hawaiian, Bangladeshi and Tongan students.

The 95-page report details other stark differences in academic achievement among California's Asian American and Pacific Islander subgroups, including qualification for UC and Cal State admission, completion of community college degree or certificate programs and attainment of bachelor's degrees. Data on 30 subgroups were examined.

"The Asian American community in California is incredibly diverse and there are huge differences in terms of college preparation, college going and college success," said Michele Siqueiros, president of the college advocacy organization. "It's really harmful to lump all of the groups into a broad Asian American category together when we know that sort of model minority myth is absolutely harmful for subgroups that are not getting the kind of support or experiencing the kind of success ... that some groups are experiencing."

California is home to about 6.8 million Asian Americans, the largest concentration in the nation, and about 332,000 Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. The vast majority trace their heritage to China, the Philippines, India, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, but dozens of other groups also reside in the state. All told, they make up about 15% of the state's population, the second largest racial/ethnic minority after Latinos.

The report notes some bright spots: 59% of Asian Americans between the ages of 25 and 64 have bachelor's degrees, the state's highest rate among racial or ethnic groups. Their overall six-year graduation rate of 88% is the highest in the UC system, and their enrollment at UC and Cal State held steady between 2019 and 2021, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

But there was also disconcerting news: Only 22% of Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Californians have bachelor's degrees, one of the lowest rates in the state. And, although 82% of Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Californians who entered high school in 2017 graduated, less than half completed the college prep coursework required for UC and Cal State admission.

The report highlighted other nuances masked by lumping all Asian, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Americans into one category. In 2020, nearly half of Cal State first-year students from that broad community reported incomes low enough to receive a federal Pell Grant, a smaller proportion than the systemwide average of 59%. But the rate varied dramatically by subgroup, from 11% for students of Japanese ancestry to 80% for Hmong Californians.

The broad community shared common struggles, however, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anti-Asian hate surged, small businesses shut down at disproportionately high rates, long-term unemployment rates rose, and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander residents had the highest rates of COVID-19 infections and related deaths among all racial and ethnic groups in the state.

The myriad stresses affected students. Leila Tamale said financial instability triggered by the pandemic drove her to save money by attending a community college instead of a four-year university. But she ultimately thrived at the College of San Mateo, she said, after joining a learning community there designed for Pacific Islander students like her — called Mana — that provides academic support, personal development and cultural connections.

Such targeted programs are critical to boost the success of the community's underserved subgroups, Tamale said Tuesday at a Campaign for College Opportunity webinar.

The failure to recognize the various challenges faced by subgroups has led to an assumption that they have few problems and to their "invisibility" in many equity conversations, Siqueiros said.

The report notes, for instance, that Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander faculty members are underrepresented compared with white counterparts in all three of the state's public higher education systems. Yet a current UC initiative to diversify the faculty is focusing on Black, Latino and Native American scholars, overlooking Asian Americans.

And although Asian Americans make up the UC system's largest group of undergraduates — 35% in fall 2021 — only one of 13 appointed Board of Regents members shares that racial background (five of the 18 board seats filled by gubernatorial appointment are currently vacant). The lack of Asian American regents is regarded as a big problem — and top priority to fix — by the California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus, according to Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco).

The report recommends greater representation for Asian American and Pacific Islanders on public higher education governing boards and more robust efforts to recruit faculty from those groups. In addition, the report calls for changes to widen access, increase financial aid and close achievement gaps among subgroups.

"Asian Americans and NHPIs have a reputation for being successful students, with data on academic outcomes often painting the portrait of a high-performing group, especially for East and South Asian Americans," the report says. "These perceptions, however, stem from group averages that mask the variation in both access to higher education and success after college enrollment ... giving rise to a common misconception that Asian Americans and NHPIs attending our nation’s colleges and universities are universally succeeding without a need for better or more targeted support.

"Not only does this model minority myth harm students, but it also hamstrings college leaders and policymakers in ensuring practice and policy decisions reflect their constituents’ needs," the report concludes.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M ...

China continues to dismantle missing tycoon Xiao Jianhua's financial empire

...WITH CHINESE CHARACTERS

Tue, May 31, 2022


Rongtong Fund Management, which was once part of Xiao Jianhua's Tomorrow Group, has unveiled a management reshuffle, marking its official exit from the missing Chinese magnate's embattled financial empire.

Zhang Wei was named Rongtong's chairman on Friday, taking over from Gao Feng who resigned citing personal reasons after seven years in the position, according to a statement issued by the asset management firm.

Zhang is also the chairman of New Times Securities, which owns Rongtung, and was previously in charge of financial management at central government-owned China Chengtong Holdings Group. Chengtong acquired a majority stake in New Times Securities after the government took over the brokerage from Tomorrow Group.

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Get the answers with SCMP Knowledge, our new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analyses and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

The shake-up at Shenzhen-based Rongtong, a money manager overseeing US$36 billion in assets, is another step taken by China's regulators to defuse risks in the financial sector by cleaning up Xiao's sprawling business network spanning from banks and brokerages to asset-management and trust firms.

A file photo of Xiao Jianhua.

The tycoon, who has not been seen in public since he left Hong Kong for the mainland in 2017, is believed to be aiding the government's investigation into some high-profile deal-making. The government seized businesses owned by Xiao, who was accused of rampant mismanagement that led several banks into insolvency and disrupted the financial order.

The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) on Friday said that it had officially ended its control over New Times Securities since taking over the Beijing-based brokerage in July 2020, and allowed it to restart its business.

In March, the CSRC granted China Chengtong approval to buy a 98.2 per cent stake in New Times Securities, whose senior management were also reshuffled. Chengtong is owned by China's state-owned asset regulator, with fund investments and financial services being its main business.

Founded in 2001, Rongtong Fund is 60 per cent owned by New Times Securities, with the rest of the stake held by Nikko Asset Management. The firm has 82 funds under management totalling 237.3 billion yuan (US$36 billion), according to its website.

In its heyday, Xiao's Tomorrow Group owned stakes in 44 financial institutions, whose total value was estimated at 3 trillion yuan. He used the sprawling network to illegally obtain loans and made arbitrages to transfer profits and finance his other businesses.

Baoshang Bank, a key pillar of Xiao Jianhua's Tomorrow Group, was declared bankrupt in 2020.

The government declared Baoshang Bank bankrupt in 2020, a key pillar of Xiao's Tomorrow Group, after the group illegally borrowed 156 billion yuan from the lender from 2005 to 2019 and failed to repay the loan. Hengfeng Bank and Jinzhou Bank, two other lenders under Tomorrow Group, were also declared insolvent.

The disposal of other financial assets of Tomorrow Group are still continuing.

Guosheng Securities, which has been under regulatory control for two years, may soon find a buyer, according to International Financial News, a publication under the state-run People's Daily.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2022 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Copyright (c) 2022. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

US Supreme Court Witchhunt: Justices Want Clerks to turnover Their Phone Records


Keith Reed
Tue, May 31, 2022

Thousands of protesters gathered to support protecting abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court said it will review the Roe vs Wade judgement, which has been in place for nearly 50 years and that led to the legal right to an abortion in the United States. The protesters gathered by the Washington Monument before marching up Constitution Avenue to the Supreme Court building. (Washington, D.C.)More

With a majority of its justices on the brink of flushing women’s right to an abortion down the toilet over the objections of a majority of the country, the Supreme Court seems to have its priorities in order: Find out who leaked the draft opinion on abortion to the press.

And, almost appropriately, it’s not too worried about potentially torpedoing the right to privacy of some young clerks in the process.

CNN reported today that after about a month of trying to figure out who gave the draft opinion to Politico, which then reported it to the public on May 2, the court’s investigation has entered an “unprecedented” new phase by asking for clerks to turn over their phone records and sign affidavits. That might help identify a leak, assuming one of the 18 clerks had anything to do with the leak and that they were brazen (or foolish) enough to use their personal phones in the process.

Otherwise, it could subject the clerks, who help the justices do legal research for their decisions, to intrusions into their personal lives by an employer, which also happens to be the most powerful piece of the judicial branch of government.

From CNN

Some clerks are apparently so alarmed over the moves, particularly the sudden requests for private cell data, that they have begun exploring whether to hire outside counsel....

...Lawyers outside the court who have become aware of the new inquiries related to cell phone details warn of potential intrusiveness on clerks’ personal activities, irrespective of any disclosure to the news media, and say they may feel the need to obtain independent counsel.

“That’s what similarly situated individuals would do in virtually any other government investigation,” said one appellate lawyer with experience in investigations and knowledge of the new demands on law clerks. “It would be hypocritical for the Supreme Court to prevent its own employees from taking advantage of that fundamental legal protection.”

Beyond the potential hypocrisy, the leak investigation also appears to be a more cynical step by a court that’s lurched toward far-right conservatism. While the majority of Americans support the right to an abortion—a question that was supposed to have been answered for good by the Court’s decision in Roe—the majority now appear bent on siding with conservative state legislators and governors who have been hellbent on banning abortions for a generation.

In the meantime, the Court could be headed toward other decisions that are out of step with where the rest of the country stands, all while having their own interests protected. After the revelation of the draft, Congress quickly authorized security details to protect the justices’ homes from protestors. And while the country reels from a series of mass killings by racists and lunatics with assault rifles, the right-leaning Court is also expected to drop a ruling soon on whether the state of New York’s strict regulations on carrying concealed handguns can remain in place.

Gosar strikes again after the Texas shooting, proving (again) that he's unfit for office

Laurie Roberts, Arizona Republic
Tue, May 31, 2022

Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar

Arizona’s reigning king of disinformation, Rep. Paul Gosar, has struck again.

While the civilized world was mourning the massacre of school children and their teachers on Tuesday evening, Rep. Paul Gosar was already up on his high horse, using the shooter to advance on two fronts in the far right’s culture wars.

Gosar announced to the world that the alleged shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was “a transsexual leftist illegal alien.”

Hey, Rep. Gosar, you missed a spot. Why not throw in that he was a Soros-backed socialist?

Of course, the pride of Arizona had no evidence to back up his claim that the shooter is transsexual. Or a leftist. Or in the country illegally.

But when did that ever stop him? (See: his stolen election tweets and his Jan 6 tweets.)
Gosar had no evidence to say those things

Gosar is a gossip of the worst kind – one who delights in distorting the facts to fit his own warped view of the world. (See: His proclamation that Jan. 6 assaulter Ashli Babbitt was “executed”.)

On Tuesday evening, he saw photos circulating in right-wing circles, taken from a Reddit account belonging to a transgender person who isn’t Ramos, and decided it was his congressional duty to immediately spread them far and wide on Twitter.

Another view: Rep. Gallego must wear his crass tweets about Texas shooting

I’d say it was shocking but it’s no more so than his speech on Jan 6, 2021, when he stood on the floor of the U.S. House and pronounced Arizona’s election stolen.

“Over 400,000 mail-in ballots were altered, switched from President Trump to Vice President Biden or completely erased from President Trump's total,” Gosar flatly said, without so much as a shred of evidence that it was so.

Just as there is not so much as a shred of evidence that Ramos was a transexual, or a leftist, or an “illegal alien.”

What Ramos was, according to the Washington Post, was an extremely troubled young man who’d been bullied all his life and become increasingly violent – one who was able to walk into a gun store just days before the shooting and buy himself a present for his 18th birthday: a pair of assault-style rifles.
5 sad truths about Gosar, shootings

Two things are true, today.

One, is that America’s next massacre is just around the corner. It took only 10 days after Buffalo for Uvalde to happen.

And two: Gosar won’t be interested in any discussion about what Congress might do to at least try to cut down on the coming body count.

Actually, five things are true.

Three: The congressman – already censured for his sick anime video in which he shows himself killing a congresswoman and threatening the president – has shown himself, yet again, to be completely unfit for office.

Four: Not a single Republican leader in this state will denounce him.

And the fifth thing that is true? He'll be re-elected in a landslide.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

Support local journalism: Subscribe to azcentral.com today.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Paul Gosar's Texas shooting tweet proves he's unfit to serve

Texas Congressman Blames Rap Music and Video Games, Not Guns For Texas Shooting

Murjani Rawls
Mon, May 30, 2022, 

US Representative Ronny Jackson, Republican of Texas, stands alongside newly-sworn in first-term Republican members of Congress on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, January 4, 2021.

Senate Republicans will blame anything else if it means getting away from passing common-sense gun control legislation. Despite the evidence that lowering the gun purchase age to 18 in his own state allowed the gunman to buy the weapon used in the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting, Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-TX) cited rap music and video games as reasons shootings keep happening.

If this reasoning sounds familiar to you, it should. This is the same explanation politicians gave after the Columbine shooting – pointing to trenchcoats, rock and rap music, and video games as culprits instead of the broad access to guns.

Rep. Jackson offered his thoughts and prayers during an interview with Fox News and said there would be discussions “in the media regarding Second Amendment rights.” From there, Jackson shifted the blame towards rap music and video games.

“When I grew up, things were different,” he continued. “And I just think that kids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff nowadays too. I look back, and I think about the horrible stuff they hear when they listen to rap music, the video games that they watch from a really early age with all of this horrible violence and stuff, and I just think that they have this access to the internet on a regular basis, which is just, you know, it’s not good for kids.”

I find it funny how it’s always rap music that gets blamed for horrible tragedies and not the representatives unwilling to act to protect the citizens they represent. Reportedly, the Senate GOP is willing to work on gun control legislation (I’ll believe it when I see it). There may be bipartisan interest in expanding background checks and “red flag” laws, but that’s the extent things could go.

It would take ten Republican Senators to vote yes, and if they didn’t do it after Columbine or Newtown, I have a hard time believing they will after Buffalo and Texas.

BRAZIL

Lula Says He Will Talk Directly to Investors on His Own Terms

Simone Iglesias
Tue, May 31, 2022, 

(Bloomberg) -- Brazil presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva eschewed the idea of relying on an economist to communicate with markets, saying he will speak directly with investors on plans for a potential third term.

“Markets need to talk with the presidential candidate”, he said Tuesday in a interview on a local radio station. “When I’ll have interest, I’ll talk to the market.”

Lula said he has about 90 economists, including several former ministers, who are currently working on the details of his government program. Still, he said he will not elevate any one of them to the role of spokesperson.

The leftist leader who governed Brazil between 2003-2010 is expected to release his economic policy proposals in June or July. He has been critical of the country’s public spending limits and also the privatization of entities including fuel distributors. Investors are eager to hear how the former union leader will face an outlook of above-target inflation and weak growth.

Lula’s Workers’ Party has tried to convey a message of stability through meetings between its members and groups of business people. Lula’s choice for running mate, former Sao Paulo Governor Geraldo Alckmin, was also aimed in part at calming investors worried about a leftist political shift.

Incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has relied on Economy Minister Paulo Guedes to liaise with financial markets at many points during his administration.

Lula regains double-digit lead over Bolsonaro in Brazil presidential poll

Brazil's former President Lula speaks in Sao Paulo

Mon, May 30, 2022

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has reclaimed a double-digit advantage over incumbent Jair Bolsonaro ahead of Brazil's October election after another center-right candidate quit the race, according to a new poll on Monday.

The opinion survey, run by Instituto FSB with sponsorship from investment bank BTG, found that 46% of voters support Lula, up from 41% in April. Support for Bolsonaro was unchanged from a month ago at 32% in the survey.

In an expected second-round run-off between the two men, Lula would gain 54% of the votes and Bolsonaro 35%, a 19 percentage point advantage that Lula had in March.

FSB director Marcelo Tokarski said Bolsonaro had gained ground in April after former Justice Minister Sergio Moro dropped out, but Lula saw a bump after Joao Doria, the former governor of Sao Paulo state, threw in the towel last week.

Frustrations about surging food and fuel prices have also taken their toll on Bolsonaro's support in the race.

"The surge in inflation, but mainly the expectation among most voters that prices will continue to rise in the next three months, has been a hurdle for Bolsonaro's re-election plans," Tokarski said.

The poll showed that the Brazilian election is more polarized than ever, with centrist alternatives to Lula and Bolsonaro garnering just 13% of voter support, down from 17% in April and 24% in March.

The rejection rates for both Lula and Bolsonaro remain virtually unchanged, with 43% of voters saying they would never vote for the leftist Workers Party leader and 59% saying they would never vote for the far-right incumbent.

The FSB research institute interviewed 2,000 voters by telephone between May 27 and 29 in the poll commissioned by BTG Pactual bank. It has a 2 percentage-point margin of error. (This story refiles to correct spelling of Lula's first name to Luiz not Luis)

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by Mark Porter)